El Chalten Advice

Everyone seems to be going down to El Chalten these days. Must be the incredible granite towers (or maybe the new guidebook). I just started a blog which summarizes my trip there last year and provides some practical tips for anyone considering a visit. Check it out if you like (Vertical Ink - Patagonia Reflections ) for pictures and hyperlinks or just consider the advice I've copied and pasted here.

-Food: El Chalten was getting regular deliveries of fresh produce and there are plenty of good, affordable, restaurants so you should be able to eat well in town. Get creative with your mountain food. There are a couple of new health food stores in town that supply good options in addition to the powdered potatoes available at most of the grocery stores. Any gels, electrolyte mixes, or freeze-dried meals should be brought from home.

-Rock gear: Light is right, the approaches are long. Use your best judgment and consider the guidebooks suggestions for rock gear. Bring extra nuts, pitons, and cordage to back up rappels (and bounce test all established rappel anchors; there is a lot of freeze/thaw). If you choose to cache your gear take pictures so you can be sure where it is (in case a friend ends up using or retrieving it) and know exactly what you left when your memory starts to fade after two weeks of bad weather.

-Ropes: We used a skinny 60m lead line with a tag line for rappels. Mid-season I upgraded to a stiffer 6mm static tag line, an Espirit Alpine Personal Escape rope . This stiffer tag line falls without bending, decreasing the likelihood of rappels snagging in high winds. Highly recommended.

-Fitness: You will spend much more time hiking than you will climbing; train your legs. Increased capacity to walk uphill with a heavy pack could easily mean more climbing days and more success. Do not underestimate the scale of the range. Rolo’s listed approach times are difficult/impossible to pull off onsight; remember he is superhuman (the Grand Traverse of the Tetons in <7 hours; 12,000 ft gain/loss, 5.8, 14 miles!).

Steve House’s book, Training for the New Alpinism, is full of all the torturous leg work you’ll need. Good training will pay huge dividends.

-Weather: Familiarize yourself with the NOAA meteograms explained in the guidebook and on Pataclimb before leaving. These will be a regular topic of conversation so learn all the tricks while you still have good internet. The isobar maps are nice too but not as popular. We found it helpful to take screenshots of the forecasts each time before we went into the mountains so we could assess conditions compared to the graphs and better predict what things would be like the next window.

Try to monitor the forecasts a little before your arrival to get an idea of what conditions might be like, or check Colin Haley’s blog, he usually has some info. Rumors of Californian like temperatures during the weather windows were for us unfounded. Each time hope would build for good conditions and each time we were frustrated by deep snow and ice coated cracks (total of <5 pitches climbed without gloves).

-Feet: Climbing shoes large enough accommodate warm socks area a must. I made it up the snowy parts of Guillamet with aluminum crampons strapped on Five-Ten Guide Tennies but on the frozen summit Ueli Steck looked at me like I was crazy/dumb. During every other trip into the mountains I wore Baturas. A lighter weight technical boot would be better for most routes.

-Hands: Hand jammies (ie. crack gloves) are a good option for keeping your hands warm and protecting the skin from the rough textured rock. I know, I know, they are super lame/cheating/etc… but the advantage of removability when you need to put your insulating gloves on at belays or the transitions to snow/ice climbing is substantial. They also don’t restrict blood flow. My inflated ego prevented me from wearing them, I wore tape gloves instead, and regretted it (Even the pros use hand jammies).

-Fuel Bottles: We had some issues with the isobutane fuel bottles in town. On certain canisters the pin was too far recessed to work with Chris’ Jetboil. The pin on my MSR MicroRocket was longer and seemed to worked on any bottle. Certain stores sold good bottles but I can’t remember which, ask around. Just be sure to check the functionality of your stove with the bottle before leaving town or you could end up doing some dicey work grinding down the bottle adapter while sparks fly like I had to.

-Rolo’s Tips: In the guidebook Rolo describes instructions for a “sleeping bag triangle” so that two people can share one bag. Saves weight and is actually not that uncomfortable. I got my supplies at Seattle Fabrics. A small piece of plastic tubing (~6”) to use as an alpine straw is also very useful for drinking water out of potholes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ivtytcv2Q
Video by Drew Smith

Thanks so much for all these tips. I am planning to go to Patagonia in two years and all your tips and advice are valuable. Thanks!